Banks Wilson

In the past decade, digital marketing has become almost unrecognizable from its infancy. Just a few years ago, all you really needed was a respectable website; then came the imperative of mobile functionality, social media and the fervor for branded apps. Now marketers are being told they need chatbots, AR and VR ads, live streaming vertical video, and content optimized for the artificial intelligence revolution. While all of this tech is exciting, and indeed promising, it seems to have brand managers, creatives and entire marketing departments overlooking one of the most basic pillars of a successful digital presence – the user experience. And at the heart of UX lies Information Architecture (IA).

Up until now, one of the biggest roadblocks to the growth of voice search has been inaccuracy—both real and perceived. In its infancy, errors were rampant and query attempts were quickly abandoned for the reliability of a keyboard. Technology, however, has progressed leaps and bounds from those early stages of voice recognition with still more ground to cover. In 2017, Google’s word error ratedropped to 4.9 percent from 23 percent in 2013. That’s like going from missing one in every four words, to one in every twenty.

In 2016, mobile accounted for over 30% of holiday shopping. On Black Friday alone, that number was over 40%. Though mobile ecommerce hasn’t kept pace with mobile traffic as a whole, more and more consumers are turning to their phones and tablets first, not just for pre-purchase research but for the entirety of their shopping experience. All these recent trends beg the question, “Is your brand ready to win consumers on mobile this holiday season?”

By now, every business owner knows that SEO is essential for driving traffic—both online and on foot. Spending on SEO alone is projected to increase from $65 billion in 2016 to almost $80 billion in 2020, according to a study byBorrell Associates. The motivation is obvious: having the best product and the strongest content won’t matter if no one can find your website. The importance of content creation by business owners and marketers alike has also been validated, with a similar jump in growth projected over the same time period. But treating SEO and content creation as two separate elements of your digital marketing strategy means wasting potential returns on both investments.97% of marketers surveyed agreed that SEO and content have become more integrated and are converging and/or are converting to a single function. So what does that look like in practice? And what does it mean for your marketing department?

You already know how important video marketing is as a part of your digital strategy, and that’s not changing anytime soon. But there is a new reason to take notice—and it’s live streaming. While live streaming isn’t a wholly new concept (Periscope, acquired by Twitter, launched in early 2015), Facebook has quickly come to dominate the space. In the first year of Facebook Live, the daily watch time for Live broadcasts has increased almost four-fold, and Live now makes up more than 20 percent of all video on Facebook. Live video is watchedthree times longer than pre-recorded video across Facebook as a whole.

Thank you to everyone who applied to the 2017 Kelly Somey Digital Marketing Scholarship! We received dozens of outstanding submissions this year from passionate high school seniors across the country. After reviewing all of the entries, UNION is excited to announce that the winner of the 2017 Kelly Somey Digital Marketing Scholarship is Akshay Punukollu!

Today’s highly-connected consumers place tremendous value on their mobile devices, relying on a litany of digital platforms for product research and, increasingly, for their purchases. Gone are the days of old where foot traffic directed retail decision-making. According to Hubspot, smartphones are now the essential part of the customer journey, with 81% of people using their mobile devices to do research before making a purchase. In order to stay competitive and succeed, brands and marketers must embrace the complicated consumer habits of mobile visitors, leveraging digital strategies to drive targeted finger traffic towards meaningful conversions.

2017 is officially here which means it’s time to review our digital experience trends to watch for the new year. 2016 saw mobile overtake desktop, video overtake traditional content, and behavioral emails replace the traditional email blast. So, what can we expect to see in the next 12 months?

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UNION is a digital marketing agency founded in 2002 and headquartered in Charlotte, NC. Considered a digital marketing leader, UNION collaborates with many of the Southeast region's top brands to achieve business objectives through strategy, creative and technology. The agency specializes in crafting digital marketing platforms, content and campaigns that deliver meaningful and measurable ROI results. Want to work with us?